Stop dwelling on Cyprus’s past and be constructive

Alvaro de Soto is hardly making a constructive contribution to a Cyprus settlement (European Voice, 10-16 March) by dwelling on the past, questioning the Greek Cypriot side’s commitment to a solution and concluding with a quote from the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash.

First, President Tassos Papadopoulos stated at the same conference (from which the extract of de Soto’s speech was taken) that he submitted in 1977 the original written proposals for settlement of the Cyprus problem on the basis of a “bi-zonal, bi-communal federal solution” and went on to say: “I was then and I still remain committed to a settlement of the Cyprus problem on that basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal solution.”

Second, by repeating what Denktash said to him that “the only relationship with the Turkish Cypriots which the Greek Cypriots are prepared to contemplate is one of domination”, de Soto questions the good faith of the Greek Cypriot side – the very essence of a federal solution being to avoid any such domination.

De Soto surely knows that a key reason for Greek Cypriots rejecting the Annan Plan in a referendum was not any wish to dominate their Turkish Cypriot brethren but a wish that Northern Cyprus no longer be dominated by Turkey. Turkey, 30 years after the invasion, still has around 40,000 troops on the island (with 6,000 of them being allowed to stay until 2011 and 3,000 until 2018 or prior Turkish accession to the EU, according to the Annan Plan). There are over 115,000 Turks in the north, more than the indigenous Turkish Cypriot population. Every morning, when Greek Cypriots wake up, they can see a huge Turkish flag carved into the Kyrenia mountain range. The Turkish lira is the official currency.

The way forward is not to dwell on the past but to agree a basis upon which the two communities can live together as Cypriots.